Catania!

Our last stop in Sicily was the city of Catania. We were a little worried about this, as we'd read all the warnings about pickpockets and muggers in the large cities, but we forged ahead, figuring they must be exaggerations, which of course they were. 

Our bus from Siracusa dropped us off near the Catania fish market and our Air Bnb apartment. It was a slightly seedy area -- with some humorous graffiti -- but we stayed in the top floor of this building built on lava (as is all of Catania, following the same earthquake that demolished Ragusa in 1693) . . .

. . . with a view from our penthouse patio that couldn't be beat, of Mount Etna and double rainbows.

We never did get a full view of Mount Etna due to cloudy skies, but we saw enough to appreciate knowing it was there. 

We had just one full day in Catania, and our goal was to experience buying fish at the famous fish market, and making a Sicilian dish. This endeavor took all day and was our favorite day in Sicily (which is saying a lot). 

The sights and sounds (lots of Italian men yelling!) and colors and smells of the fish market were out of this world. It wasn't only fish, either: it was poultry, goat, pork, probably horse (they eat horse meat in Catania, our Air Bnb host told us), sausages, fruit, vegetables, breads, cheeses, even refrigerator magnets. I'll just post some photos and let you enjoy it, like we did. It's hard to believe they pull off this show every day of the week except Sundays.

While we were out and about in Catania, we also saw these  nice things:

A graceful door-knocker . . .

 . . . and a lovely old mandolin

I also found this pastry, which I absolutely had to buy, to see what was inside . . .

I hoped it wasn't fruitcake, and I was happy to see that it wasn't . . . 

. . . however, it was so tooth-achingly sweet, even for me, that I couldn't finish. Very sad. 

Our main focus on our day in Catania, though, was on buying the ingredients for our dinner. Here is Gary looking over squid, which was selling fast:

. . . and here I am with our singing, cigar-smoking prawn salesman. He saw me eyeing the prawns in his stand, and took my arm, very gentlemanly, and led me back to scale, which he started piling with prawns by the handful. Our recipe called for only 8, so when I cried, "No more!," it only made him pile in more! Maybe "no more" means "more" in Italian? Or, like Gary said, maybe he thought I was saying "No! More!"  I highly doubt it, but he was so darn cute he knew he could get away with anything. And, as it turned out, eight prawns wouldn't have been nearly enough anyway. He knows his stuff, and he knows he's irresistible, too!

After a morning of wandering through both open-air markets (there was another one about a kilometer away that we also visited), we were ready to go home as everything started to close around 1:00 p.m. One thing I never got used to in Sicily was the siesta time, when mostly everything closes at 1:00 and doesn't open again until 4:30 in the afternoon. But on this particular day, we had to get home and start preparing our dinner anyway, so it was okay. Maybe that's how siesta time got started in the first place?

Gary found this recipe for Spaghetti Ai Frutti Di Mare on a  wonderful Italian cooking blog called Ciao Chow Linda, so this is what we made:

Spaghetti Ai Frutti Di Mare

(Spaghetti with seafood)

(for two people)

8 medium prawns, shelled and deveined [we ended up with about 20, thanks to our savvy salesman]

8 medium calamari (squid), cleaned and cut into rings [we only bought 2 squids, as we felt this was a great plenty]

8 clams  [we bought way too many clams and paid too much, due to my bad shopping skills, but they were small and very pretty, like colored rocks on a beach, so I have no regrets]

1/2 pound scallops [we only found one place at the fish market offering scallops, and by that time we had already bought way too much of everything else, including a volleyball-sized bag of mussels, so we skipped the scallops, sadly]

1/4 cup olive oil

1 T. butter

1 medium shallot, minced

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup dry white wine

minced parsley [they threw in fresh parsley for free at the fish market when we bought mussels. They must know you'll need it]

white pepper

red pepper flakes [we just used black pepper for both of the peppers but next time, we'll follow the recipe, as it's bound to be just that much better with the right peppers]

1/4 cup Olio Verde al Limone olive oil [we just squeezed a fresh lemon into olive oil and mixed it up]

Get the water for the pasta boiling before starting the rest of the recipe since it takes only about 10 minutes to make start to finish. You’ll have three pots going at once – one for boiling the pasta, one for making the sauce and one for steaming the clams.

Place butter and 1/4 cup olive oil in one pan with shallot and garlic. Cook over low heat until wilted. Add the scallops and shrimp and cook for a couple of minutes over medium heat. Pour the white wine into the pan and add the calamari. Cook for another minute or two, then remove the seafood with a slotted spoon to a bowl or dish. Add the red pepper flakes to the liquid. Turn the heat up to high and let the sauce reduce a bit. This should take a couple of minutes. 

While you’re reducing the liquid, you should start the pasta cooking in boiling, salted water. 

While you’re cooking the pasta, steam the clams in another pan until they open – it should take about three or four minutes.  Remove from clams and set aside.

Add the drained pasta to the pot with the reduced sauce.  Put the seafood back in and season with white pepper. Add the parsley and mix everything together. If needed, add a little of the pasta water. Drizzle the lemon olive oil on top and serve.



Here are our ingredients, fresh from the market in Catania:

We had never prepared squid before, so had to look it up on YouTube. It's surprisingly easy, but it was essential to have a guide. I never knew there was a clear plastic-looking thing inside a squid!

Later that same day . . .

Here's the happy chef . . .

. . . and the best meal on earth!

Fantastico! What an unforgettable meal, and an unforgettable day, from start to finish.

We ended our Sicilian trip with a train ride back to Palermo, along the sea and through tunnels. We had to leave early the next morning to fly back to Hamburg, fetch our luggage in Lübeck, say farewell to Peter, and start heading for home. We are ready. It's been a fabulous two and a half months here in Europe, and we will head back to Minnesota tomorrow, March 1st, for 2 more months of winter. 

Before leaving for the airport, I squeezed the last of my blood oranges for a glass of juice, next to a lemon tree. Arrivederci, Europe! We hate to leave but we are happy to be going home, all at the same time.